Posted on 02/13/2019 8:58:00 AM PST by ebb tide
February 11, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – At least three bishops so far are publicly supporting Cardinal Gerhard Müller after he issued a “Manifesto of Faith” on Friday in the hope of clearing up the growing doctrinal confusion in the Church.
Bishops Joseph Strickland, Thomas Tobin, and Marian Eleganti all expressed their gratitude to Cardinal Müller, the former head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for reaffirming the essential tenets of our Catholic Faith.
“Thank God for Cardinal Müller's strength and fidelity to Christ and his Teaching,” says Bishop Strickland.
Bishop Strickland, of Tyler, Texas, responded only half an hour after the publication of the Manifesto, in the late afternoon on February 8. He wrote on Twitter: “Let us embrace this joyful challenge with new vigor..............Cardinal Müller Issues ‘Manifesto of Faith’.”
On Saturday morning, Bishop Thomas Tobin, of Providence, Rhode Island commented on Twitter: “I just read Cardinal Mueller's ‘Manifesto of Faith’. I really appreciate his clear, concise, and ordered approach. Highly quotable, and an excellent summary of the faith. 'May Mary, the Mother of God, implore for us the grace to remain faithful.'”
Additionally, Bishop Marian Eleganti, the auxiliary bishop of Chur, Switzerland, sent an appreciative comment to LifeSite. “I am very grateful to Cardinal G.L. Müller for his prophetic statements concerning questions of the Faith and of the proclamation at a time of confusion and of bewilderment among many faithful and those who are seeking. The Holy Spirit may enlighten us and turn us into credible witnesses of the Gospels and of the Catholic Faith!”
READ: Cardinal Müller issues Manifesto: A quasi correction of Pope Francis’ pontificate
Cardinal Müller, who has issued his Manifesto of Faith in the capacity of the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, explicitly states that he had been asked to do so by many clergymen and laymen alike. He says: “In the face of growing confusion about the doctrine of the Faith, many bishops, priests, religious and lay people of the Catholic Church have requested that I make a public testimony about the truth of revelation. It is the shepherds' very own task to guide those entrusted to them on the path of salvation.” He further states that this Manifesto “was written with the aim of strengthening the Faith of the brothers and sisters whose belief has been massively questioned by the 'dictatorship of relativism.'”
The support for Cardinal Müller comes as some have tried to characterize his Manifesto as an “attack” on Pope Francis. For example, Cardinal Walter Kasper, a high-profile liberal admired by Pope Francis, accused Müller of sowing “confusion and schism.”
Cardinal Müller based his Manifesto fully on the teaching of the Catholic Church's 1992 Catechism and restates the Church's basic teaching on the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation; the Catholic Church as founded by Jesus Christ as an “instrument of salvation”; the Church's sacramental order, to include the teaching on the Holy Eucharist according to which only those in the state of sanctifying grace may receive Holy Communion fruitfully unto salvation; the moral law which interdicts acts like adultery, homosexuality, contraception, and abortion; as well as the danger of the eternal loss of one's soul.
Cardinal Müller ends his text with a call, reminding all the “workers in the vineyard” to preserve the entire Catholic Faith and to pass it on loyally to the faithful: “As workers in the vineyard of the Lord, we all have a responsibility to recall these fundamental truths by clinging to what we ourselves have received. We want to give courage to go the way of Jesus Christ with determination, in order to obtain eternal life by following His commandments (CCC 2075).”
The cardinal released his manifesto to a worldwide audience, in seven different languages, thus allowing for a widespread affirmation of the orthodox Catholic faith.
To this end, LifeSite is hosting a petition at its LifePetitions platform so the Catholic clergy and faithful of the world, in all language groups, can make a visible sign of their support for the full and unvarnished faith and for the Cardinal’s initiative.
Only three bishops? And none of them having been elevated to Francis's stacked college of cardinals.
Ping
Those who know my posting history know that I don’t think the Manifesto goes nearly far enough in matters of Catholic doctrine, but the very fact that there are only 3 Novus Ordo bishops who have gone along with even this much shows what a pathetic state the post-Vatican II Novus Ordo church is in.
Yay!!!! We aren’t at mid-fourth century levels yet. That said, I was betting on Strickland before I even read the article. Too bad Morlino died. If this reaches three dozen it may yet get legs.
As one Father of Vatican II noted, the only act of collegiality recorded in the gospels is “and they all fled.”
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